Terraco Gold
Richard (Rick) Mills
Ahead of the Herd
As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
Terraco Gold Corp TSX.V – TEN is an aggressive junior exploration company with properties in Nevada and Idaho.
The Almaden property, located in Idaho, has been drilled with 887 holes, and 60,000 meters of historical drilling and has a Measured and Indicated gold resource of 864,000 oz of gold and an inferred resource of 84,000 oz gold. This resource is likely open pittable and heap leachable.
Almaden is similar to mines in northern Nevada which host bonanza‐grade gold in feeder zones below lower grade disseminated ores. High‐grade feeder system examples include; Midas (7.6M ounces), Mule Canyon, Buckhorn and Hollister
A majority of the historic drilling has been only to a depth of 100 meters and the resource is still open along strike for several hundred meters and also at depth. Earlier metallurgical work done in 1997 indicates a recovery rate of 63%. It’s believed this recovery rate can be increased.
Bonanza‐grade gold occurs in areas of boiling commonly starting
at 150 m to 200m below disseminated ores
While there is real value in the current resource of almost one million gold ounces deeper drilling may identify high grade and perhaps bonanza gold and silver ore shoots that may have fed the current resource. The Almaden resource appears to be similar to mines in northern Nevada (Hollister @ 4 million oz gold or Midas @ 7.6 million oz gold) that had bonanza grade gold zones in feeder zones below the disseminated gold discovered to date.
What is so exciting about the upcoming Almaden drill program is that there is substantial evidence to suggest there might be higher grade, perhaps bonanza grade, feeder shoots at depth. The main body of mineralization runs along an exposed ridge. This does two things for a company – firstly an out cropping orebody on top of a ridge reduces the strip ratio in a low grade deposit but secondly, and much more important is, its roughly 200 meters higher than the start of the Stinking Water drill hole.
The Exploration potential on the Almaden property is in extending the known mineralization and potential discovery of higher grade feeder shoots
If Terraco’s interpretation of how the feeder system works is correct, than higher grade feeder shoots could start showing at roughly 200 meters of depth. The Stinking Water drill hole was collared 600 meters away from the Almaden Main, started some 175 meters lower than the upper surface of the outcropping orebody and contains high grade intercepts – one intercept graded 11.5 grams a tonne gold over 3.7 meters.
The suggestion, to this author, is that the Hollister/Midas Mine model of having higher grade ore shoots feeding the current resource is potentially very real at Almaden.
Drilling is expected to start in about a month, permitting is underway. In Idaho permits are not needed for private or patented land – only for federal land and there are very few holes going to be drilled on Federal land.
Terraco’s Moonlight gold/silver property is located in Pershing County, Nevada and adjoins the Barrick/Midway JV project, Spring Valley, to the south – Barrick and Midway have identified over 1,800,000 ounces of gold resource. Midway’s Spring Valley project and Terraco’s Moonlight are both on the Black Ridge Fault. Moonlight is also on trend and approximately five miles north of the Coeur Rochester silver/gold mine – also on the Black Ridge fault.
A systematic grass roots program on Terraco’s Moonlight property consisting of mapping, rock sampling (results were as high as 4 grams per tonne gold and 2500 grams per tonne silver) and airborne and ground geophysical surveys identified several targets that appear to display either geological or geophysical characteristics similar to areas of gold mineralization in Barrick/Midway Spring Valley Project.
Terraco’s Moonlight Project is one of the largest early stage
properties remaining on the Humboldt Trend
Chip sampling at the historic Moonlight Mine yielded results of up to 2510 grams per tonne (gpt) silver across one meter and 1045 gpt silver across 1.5 meters. Within the Moonlight Basin, dump and outcrop sampling yielded values as high as 3.75 gpt gold and 257 gpt silver.
Sampling has also revealed previously unidentified anomalous gold, silver and base metals in outcrop and float elsewhere within the Moonlight Project area.
At many of the old mines and prospects on the Moonlight property gold and silver do not appear to be closely correlated in sample results; this might suggest these precious metals originated from different mineralizing events.
There is some evidence to suggest that Moonlight could be the next mineralized event in a string of deposits on the Humboldt Trend ranging from Relief Canyon at the south end, north through Nevada Packard, Rochester, Spring Valley and Moonlight.
There have been two small drill programs by Terraco on the Moonlight property in the past. Results from both programs were, well let’s just say they were less than expected. But let’s remember something here – exploration is basically a succession of experiments. Each experiment you do, success or failure, brings in more data to increase your knowledge.
Since Terraco did their last drill program understanding of the mineralization controls of Midway’s Spring Valley project (and other deposits in the area) has evolved immensely.
Drill results, sampling, mapping and a greater understanding of Spring Valley mineralization has led the Terraco team to change targets and move from the basin further east. Terraco plans to drill Moonlight this summer. Tom Chadwick – a Black Ridge fault expert – has been hired to do the mapping and coordinate his work with Joe Inman who is doing the geophysical work.
They now have new targets in the same host rocks and structural environment as Spring Valley. Also cross structures are extremely important at Spring Valley and Terraco has some major cross structures targeted in this summer’s drill program.
Conclusion
Terraco Gold Corp. has two exciting and very well thought out drill programs starting in the first half of the year. Terraco’s management has, in the past, been successful in all aspects of running a junior resource company – this team has been there and done it, not once but numerous times. Is Terraco Gold and its Almaden and Moonlight drill programs on your radar screen?
If not, maybe it should be.
Richard (Rick) Mills
rick@aheadoftheherd.com
www.aheadoftheherd.com
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Richard is host of www.aheadoftheherd.com and invests in the junior resource sector. His articles have been published on over 200 websites, including: Wall Street Journal, SafeHaven, Market Oracle, USAToday, National Post, Stockhouse, Lewrockwell.com, Casey Research, 24hgold, Vancouver Sun, SilverBearCafe, Infomine, Huffington Post, Mineweb, 321Gold, Kitco, Gold-Eagle, The Gold/Energy Reports, Calgary Herald, Resource Investor and Financial Sense.
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Legal Notice / Disclaimer
This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment. Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently verified; Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are subject to change without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore, I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information provided within this Report.
Richard Mills does not own shares of Terraco Gold Corp. TSX.V – TEN
Terraco Gold Corp. TSX.V – TEN is an advertiser on Richard’s website www.aheadoftheherd.com.
